Faces of Digital Health

This episode explores health literacy improvement and women empowerment in Malaysia, Kenya and Tanzania.  You are going to hear from two speakers: Shamala S. Hinrichsen, the CEO of Hanai, a company providing health information to the underserved populations in Malaysia and Kenya. The other speaker is Mariatheresa Samson Kaduschi, the CEO and CO-Founder of Mobile Afya, which provides healthcare information to people in Tanzania and slowly scaling to other countries in Africa as well. We talked about the specifics of these three markets, the technology used to serve as wide of a population as possible, and some of the challenges the female founders face when designing and implementing solutions that are critical for society, but less profitable from the investment point of view.Episode SummaryTo explore other episodes as well go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.

This episode explores Amazon’s efforts in healthcare, the challenges of increasing transparency in AI development in healthcare, and a little bit about the state of turning microbiome research into business. There were many doubts that Amazon could succeed because healthcare and drug management are complex etc. It’s 2021 and Amazon is offering a competitive online Pharmacy and expanding its Amazon Care and telehealth offer. Microbiome space is a hot investment area but a shadow was cast upon it because of the downfall of the startup call uBiome. uBiome first offered a direct-to-consumer gut analysis for wellness. Later they turned it into a clinical test reimbursable by health insurance, which ended in problematic billing practices. In March this year, the Co-Founders were charged with multiple federal crimes including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering, and related offenses.Erin Brodwin is a health tech reporter at STAT News. In her career so far, Erin covered the promise and peril of AI in health care, broken news about health tech companies, and written comprehensively about wearables and their impact on digital health. Before joining STAT Erin was a senior health and tech reporter at Business Insider.  Episode SummaryEnjoy the discussion and to browse through more content, go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com. Leave a rating or a review at www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

In January 2021 a jury in Montana delivered what is believed to be the first verdict in a wrongful life case, awarding over $400,000 compensation for medical and emotional costs due to the unwanted treatment of Rodney Knoepfle. In theory, patients have the right and option to draft an advanced care plan, a written document with their preferences about advanced medical treatment, life support and resuscitation in case of a serious health event. In this episode, Ryan Van Wert, MD, an intensive care physician, Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University and CEO and co-founder of Vynca talks about the current challenges surrounding advanced care planning in the US. Vynca provides comprehensive advance care planning technology solutions that enable health care organizations to deliver high-quality end-of-life care consistent with an individual’s preferences. This episode is a part of the AgeTech series. This is a series of discussions about end-of-life care, geriatric care, caregiving, and the aging society.Episode SummaryMore on the website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com Leave a rating or a review: http://www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

While discussions about the end of life are not easy, the pandemic opened up space for us to talk more openly about dying and the best possible care in the last days of our lives.This is the third discussion about AgeTech:In the first episode of this series, you can listen to what can we learn about the aging society from Japan.In the second episode, you can hear how an Austrian startup is matching caregivers and the elderly based on their personality profiles.The 4th episode, focuses on advanced care planning.This episode puts the light on innovation in the field of geriatric care. Martina Viduka, a registered nurse by background is Co-Founder of Advosense. Advosense is a Berlin-based startup with the mission to empower clinicians to know when, where, and how best to respond to their patients’ needs. So far, the company developed disposable briefs with smart inlay technology that monitors the patient’s dryness. This makes caring for patients with incontinence a lot more effective and respectful. In this discussion Martina talks about:  Innovation in geriatric care, The future of public perception of aging, Her experience of working as a nurse during the COVID pandemic.  Episode SummaryEnjoy the discussion and to learn more, go to www.facesofdigitalhealth.com.

As a part of the currently running series about AgeTech, today’s episode is focused on elderly care and how to best match caregivers and the elderly. You are going to hear from an Austrian entrepreneur, Anja Silbauer. According to OECD, health care coverage is near-universal, and accessibility of services is generally good. Austria is among the countries with the lowest self-reported unmet medical needs in the EU. While life expectancy has increased in recent years, behavioral risk factors remain a major driver of morbidity and mortality in Austria. Smoking among adults has not declined over the past two decades and is now more prevalent than in most other EU countries. Progress with restricting smoking in public places has been slow, and a smoking ban in establishments that provide hospitality was delayed again to late 2019. Although alcohol consumption has decreased since 2000, it remains above the EU average.• In this episode you will hear from Anja Silbaur - co-founder and CEO of Harmony & Care - an Austrian startup that designed a matching platform for caregivers of the elderly. It resembles dating providers: caregivers and the elderly need to fill out a thorough questionnaire. This serves as a basis for finding the most suitable matches. In the past Harmony and Care (https://www.harmonyandcare.com/) worked with Caregivers agencies in Austria. In 2019 they also launched their own https://careplus24.com/ Care+ platform that enables the elderly or their loved ones to find a full-time caregiver that lives with the elderly person at their home. In this way, the elderly can delay or avoid a stressful move to a nursing home facility and stay at home longer. In this discussion with Anja, you will hear some thoughts about the demands of the aging population, the needs of the elderly, and how society can best approach care in our final years of life. This episode is a part of a longer series about AgeTech and peaceful aging. Tune in to other shows as well, and subscribe to be notified about new ones automatically.  Go to: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com Leave a rating or a review: www.lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth

This is the first episode about AgeTech and rethinking the last years of our lives. Over 2.3 million people died due to COVID by February 2021. These were mostly older people. Many of them died alone in the hospital, without the option to say goodbye to their families. Without even someone from the medical staff at their bedside. COVID opened up space for us to start reconsidering on a broader level how we wish to die, lead quality last years of life, and fear death less. This episode looks at a few innovations in Japan. Japan is the nation with the largest elderly population in the world. Over 28% of people in Japan are older than 65. The episode explores: Why do the Japanese live so long? What effect does a longer lifespan have on individuals and caregiving? How can healthy life be encouraged already at younger ages? We will take a closer look into a solution addressing visual impairment and a solution for Aspiration Pneumonia, which is a common issue with the elderly. It refers to food going into the lungs causing an infection that can lead to death from pneumonia. Speakers: Adrian Sossna, VP of global sales at HacarusKenji Suzuki, CEO of Plimes Mr. Yasuro Koizumi, CEO of Finc Technologies  Kazuo Kaneko, CEO of Digital AttendantEpisode SummaryMore at: www.facesofdigitalhealth.comLeave a rating or a review

Hacarus is a Japanese company developing AI Solutions for Manufacturing and Medical Industries. Their Salus platform for medical and life sciences uses Medical imaging data such as CT & MRI scans, time-series data, such as ECG data, and medical record to create precise, complex tools, that aid caregivers and researchers to provide better, faster and safer treatment, based on data-driven insights.In this episode, Adrian Sossna, who is originally from Sweden but has been living in Japan for several years now, shared his insights into life in Japan, the tech ecosystem, and the challenges in developing AI for healthcare and medicine.Episode SummaryLeave a rating or a reviewBrowse through other episodes

Dr. Padmini (Mini) Murthy - Professor and Global Health Director at New York Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice.Dr. Murthy is a physician and an activist who trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has practiced medicine and public health for the past 28 years in various countries. She worked as a consultant for United Nations Population Fund, she is the Secretary-General of the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) and its NGO representative to the United Nations (UN). She is the global health lead for the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA). In 2020 she published a book titled Technology and Global Public Health, which is a great read if you wish to get a perspective about health and technology, women, and technology in countries like Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Japan, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and more.This episode explores the book’s content, the emphasis on women’s health and the impact of COVID on women’s health, the power of mHealth for public health, especially in developing countries, using apps for gender empowerment. Technology and Global Public Health  - https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030463540Faces of digital health website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com Leave a rating or review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth 

Diversity is an increasingly debated topic in startup investments, since founders of under-represented backgrounds may it be gender, race, age, and more too often experience inequality in opportunities. US VC funding for female-founded or co-founded companies has been trending up in recent years. However, last year women were impacted by the pandemic also on the funding level. According to Pitchbook, during the first quarter of 2020, 4.3% of VC deals went to companies founded by women, compared to 7.1% during the first quarter of 2019. Crista Galli Ventures Fund is especially attentive to giving an opportunity to founder with under-represented backgrounds. The fund was founded by Dr Fiona Pathiraja who is a radiologist by training. She left medical practice to become a management consultant. After doing that for a year, she became a clinical advisor position at the British Department of Health. After realizing that change comes to healthcare because of technological advancements slowly entering the sector, she got an MBA and became an investor.  Crista Galli Ventures Fund: https://www.cristagalli.com/ Visit www.facesofdigitalhealth.com for other episodes and recaps as well 

Music can change our mood, energize ur, make us feel invincible.It goes beyond that: it can heal. MedRythms is a digital therapeutics company building direct stimulation solutions that use clinical-grade sensors, AI-driven software and music to help restore function lost to neurologic disease or injury. Last year, the company received a Breakthrough Device designation from the FDA for its patented digital therapeutic that treats chronic stroke walking deficits. They are also doing Randomized Control Trials in multiple indications, including stroke, MS, Cerebral Palsy, and Parkinson’s Disease. In this interview, Brian Harris, the CEO of MedRhythms talks about the current findings regarding the power of music as a therapeutic intervention.